November is National Novel Writing Month, when aspiring novelists are challenged to write a 50,000-word work (about 175 pages) in 30 days. In 2006, over 79,000 people participated and nearly 13,000 reached the 50,000-word goal. The organizers say: Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought […]
Commentary on J. K. Rowling’s outing of Dumbledore is still flying thicker than owls in the Hogwarts Dining Hall. Michael Jensen at After Elton questions why she didn’t reveal this sooner. John Cloud, a gay writer for TIME, wishes she hadn’t said anything: But as far as we know, Dumbledore had not a single fully
Making its way across the Internet faster than a blast-ended skrewt is the news that J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, has outed Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore. Speaking at Carnegie Hall in New York on Friday, she admitted she “always thought Dumbledore was gay.” Reuters reports: Rowling said Dumbledore fell in love
Hot on the heels of Banned Books Week comes the news that the American Library Association is seeking to create a list of recommended LGBTQ-themed children’s books. From Worth the Trip: The ALA’s Social Responsibilities Round Table and the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Transgendered Round Table are combining forces to create a Rainbow List of recommended
Tales for Teens and Those Who Have Been Julie Anne Peters’s novel Between Mom and Jo, about a boy whose moms are breaking up, won last year’s Lambda Literary Award in the Children’s/Young Adult category. In her latest work, grl2grl: short fictions (Little, Brown) she shows us her skill with a shorter form. The 10
The BOB Books, by Bobby Lynn Maslen, is a series for beginning readers originally published in the 1970’s. Unlike other early primers such as the Dick and Jane books, however, these seem as fresh today as when they first appeared. Part of the reason for this is that the stories are extremely simple. “Mat Sat.
Today marks the start of Banned Books Week, a celebration of the freedom to read. This week, LGBT families have a particular reason to observe the event. Children’s storybook And Tango Makes Three, based on a true story about two male penguins who adopt an abandoned egg, tops the American Library Association’s list of “10
At our local library the other day, I flipped through Kids Cook 1-2-3: Recipes for Young Chefs Using Only 3 Ingredients, but didn’t expect much. I assumed it told how to mix chocolate chips and raisins into a pre-made cake mix and the like. Instead, I was surprised to find recipes from fresh ingredients and
I popped into the library of my son’s school the other day as part of my “get to know the school” plan and because as a (perhaps not successfully) recovering academic, I am constitutionally unable to stay out of any library within a 100-yard radius. I started chatting with the libarian, and in the course
Literary site Young Adult Book Club has dedicated September as GLBT Month, and will be posting a variety of relevant reviews, interviews, and essays. M. E. Kerr, author of the first hardcover book about AIDS in which the protagonists were gay, is their first interviewee. Check their blog for new content every day. Thanks to
